Leadership core competencies for higher education facilities managers

Abstract

The higher education facilities manager has a broad spectrum of leadership responsibilities for maintaining the institutional campus, which includes the management of buildings and grounds maintenance as well as people and customer service management. Leadership core competencies for the higher education facilities manager can be just as varied as the job duties. Therefore, a literature review was conducted to determine the leadership core competencies for higher education facilities managers. A data analysis using a two-stage qualitative thematic coding of the available literature contributed to the development of eight leadership master core competencies, which are: Physical Asset Operational Knowledge, Organizational Effectiveness, Strategy/Vision Leadership, Human Resources Administration, Relationship Cultivation, Communicative Expertise, Governance Acumen and Decision Making/Conflict Resolution. Higher education facilities entities can utilize the set of eight competencies as parameters for hiring managers into the profession, for employee evaluation and development initiatives and for internal leadership succession planning.